Why Not Philadelphia? By Thom Nickels, For The Bulletin 11/16/2008 Many questions have been asked about the proposed American Commerce Cen...

Saturday, February 18, 2017

The New Civil War

THE LOCAL LENS

THOM NICKELS AMERICA'S NEW CIVIL WAR

Some people say that the political
polarization in the country is worse now than it’s been since the American
Civil War. It has even been predicted that the country is on the verge of
another civil war. That seems a bit of a stretch although it is true that
during the Vietnam War many protesters believed that the antiwar movement was
the second American Revolution.

But what if the current unrest in the
country does lead to a second American Civil War? How would that play out in
the modern era? Granted, there wouldn’t be battles like those that were fought
in Gettysburg or Vicksburg,
but it’s very conceivable that each side would come up with their own flag
design. Signs and symbols, after all, are important. The President’s people
might construct an orange flag, which would stand in stark contrast to the flag
of the Resistance: a pair of big furry pussy ears fixed to a raised fist.

The first shot of the new civil war will not
be fired at FortSumter but will ring out during one of the many demonstrations
being held throughout the nation. Lulled into a false sense of security by the
relative liberality and “ease” of the Obama years, the Resistance will have
little sense of limits when it comes to protesting President Trump and the GOP,
which they will happily refer to as Grab
Our Pussies. The false sense of security that former President Obama’s
policies would last forever will mislead those in the Resistance to believe
that a slap on the wrist or squirts of pepper spray will be the highest price
to pay for blocking highways and traffic at rush hour. They will have forgotten
about history, namely the May 4, 1970 killing of KentState antiwar student protesters by the National Guard. The
Resistance will be taken by surprise when after months of engaging in property
destruction, government building invasions and street mayhem, President Trump
declares Marshal Law.

The
Resistance’s worst fears will materialize but only because they worked to push
the protest limits into the stratosphere. One might compare this ‘every action has a reaction’ mindset to
the closing of Cione Field to the general public because of the irresponsible
habits of a few dog walkers who don’t clean up after their animals poop. The Resistance
will have created a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Like Mary Shelley who created the novel Frankenstein, they will have created Dictator President Trump. The Resistance will pretend to be scandalized
at the turn of events but down deep they will be happy because life for them
has no purpose if one cannot ...resist.

Driven underground, the Resistance will form collective
huddles in basements and community centers. Formerly benign groups like Nuns on
the Bus will be renamed Nuns with Guns and the streets of the city will become
like an armed camp. At night, armies of
pussy eared fem soldiers and their Lone Ranger masked boyfriends will scurry
from one back alley to another in defiance of the new curfew laws. The Marshals
will catch many of the curfew breakers, remove their knitted hats and then put
the ears on the top of stakes that will line major thoroughfares.

Citizens
not involved in the new civil war will stay put in their houses after sundown,
where they will load up on popcorn and NetFliks. These people will be called
‘The Middles’ because they admire some things about President Trump although
they cannot buy his entire agenda. The Middles will support some Resistance
ideas although they will continue to have issues with abortion or dressing up
their two year old daughters as “walking vaginas” who scream “fuck you” at supporters
of the President. The Middles will call for peace and compromise but the nation
will have become so polarized that The Middles will be seen as even greater
enemies than the enemy that each side is supposed to hate.

Violent skirmishes in the streets of the city
will be common, such as gunshots, home made explosions, screams and the sounds
of large groups as they charge into buildings or attack limos in the vicinity
of the Union League. These will be intensely dark times for the nation, and
especially for Philadelphia, which will see brother against brother, mother
against son, and neighbor against neighbor. The agreed upon boundaries of civil
tolerance will disappear. There will be no discussion, no dialogue. Speakers
with an “incorrect” point of view will be dragged from podiums, hog tied and
gagged. It will make the humble beginnings of political discord and intolerance
on Facebook, when friend “unfriended” friend, seem like innocent child’s
play.

PhiladelphiaCity
Hall, because
of its prime reputation as a major Resistance city, will become a nerve center
in the new civil war, even under Marshal Law. Mayor Kenney will lead the charge, continuing
to defy a federal ban on Sanctuary cities to the bitter end, even as the
stoppage of federal funds from Washington hurls the city into dire poverty and forces many public
schools to close. The mayor will ask citizens to accept the suffering as a sacrifice
for the noble ideals of The Resistance. Many will come to see him as the
American male version of Joan of Arc and join in chants like, “death is better than capitulation.” Indeed
for some it will be death because many will even not be able to afford a block
of Velveeta cheese. The end of federal funding will spiral outward and affect
all areas of city life. Outdoor restaurants and cafes will close sidewalk
service and theaters will close or choose not to offer frivolous plays about millennials
in love or esoteric love stories that have ties to quantum physics. Every play
will have a Resistance theme.

Civil War, after all, is serious business!

Ideological frenzy will be the order of the
day. The Resistance will demand the resignation of President Trump and demand
that “reality” return to the way it was under President Obama. The Orange Brigade, on the other hand, will
be just as immovable, having long ago repealed Obamacare without replacing it
with anything except a promise to come up with something better “very soon.” But
even President Trump, with all of his mighty Executive Orders, will not be able
to slay three giants, the American Medical Association, Big Pharm and the insurance
industry when it comes to implementing a sensible health care program for all
Americans.

Without national health insurance and with
the new Congress’ dismantling of many programs for the poor, like Medicaid,
long standing institutions like Health Care Six on Girard Avenue will close its doors. The poor will now have no
medical care even in hospital emergency rooms where it was once possible to
apply as a charity case patient. Those who cannot pay for hospital treatment
upfront on a credit card, check or cash will be sent back into the streets or
to their homes to die.

The lovely, free Obama phone will disappear
from view. Methadone clinics will disappear or be taken over by for profit
companies that will demand hours of work in exchange for counseling and
treatment. Social Security will not be affected for those already retired but
the scale of future benefits will be radically marked down for millennials so
that by the time they retire the benefits will be down to almost nothing.

Conversely, there will be plenty of jobs.
Factories will make reappearance so that if a new hire doesn’t like one job
they can quit and literally walk down the street to another factory and be
hired on the spot.

America will be a mixed bag of opportunities and devastation.

The new Civil War will be long and protracted.
It will mostly be a war of banishment and shunning more than a violent
conventional war. In the end, it will be The Middles who will work to negotiate
a peace treaty. They will find a way to get both sides to sit down and talk and
come up with a comprehensive Middle Way
to Restore the Nation. Ideological
fanatics on both extremes will fight this but in the end they will lose.

The nation, exhausted by strife and unrest,
will finally realize that the extreme ideologues on the Right and the Left have
to go.

Followers

About Me

I am a Philadelphia-based author/journalist, the author of nine published books, including: The Cliffs of Aries (1988), Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This (1989), The Boy on the Bicycle (1991-1994), Manayunk (1997), Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia (2000), Tropic of Libra (2002), Out in History and Philadelphia Architecture (2005)and SPORE (2010). In 1990, Two Novellas was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and a Hugo Award. Winner of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Two Novellas rewritten and retitled for Starbooks Press: Walking on Water & After All This, available as an e-book. Winner of the Philadelphia AIA 2005 Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. I am currently the City Beat editor at ICON Magazine, a contributing editor/writer at The Weekly Press, and a weekly columnist (The Local Lens) for Philadelphia’s SPIRIT Community Newspapers. I am the Religion Editor for the Lambda Book Report, and have written for Philadelphia's Broad Street Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
www.tnickels.net